[[1]]
Hobarton[,] Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania]
August 16th 1840
My dear Father
We arrived here this day at about 4 pm when our letters were brought up the
side you can imagine the [?] that I sustained between the receiving & reading
the long delayed packages. I shall begin by abruptly setting your mind at rest
on one or two subjects you ask me about. On first with regard to the gun I
behaved most foolishly though believe me without any intention of wronging
my brother or deceiving you. It, as I told you belonged to the young man at the
Infirmary who, as you also know offered it to William to purchase, from whom I
heard of it. When at Invereck the latter wanted me to accept of it from him,
which I would not consent to, but told him I w[oul]d buy it, if approved of, on
going to town; on arriving at Glasgow I went to W[illia]ms house where it had
been sent to inspect & brought it home as you may remember with a porter,
the price was £10 which I intended to have left at W[illiam]s lodgings & had
put it up so to do, in the hurry of leaving I forgot it & procrastination solely
prevented me from forwarding it from Chatham. how I came to forget it I
cannot tell but such is the facts. The poor fellow was most anxious to pay for it
himself, telling me that he had plenty of money that you gave him more than
he required, & also wished that you should know if I approve of his giving it to
me, had I allowed him. I am much to blame in this matter but not with any
intent to deceive you or wrong him. With regard to his giving money to
McGowan[?] or assisting him in any shape whatever, I am entirely ignorant,
nor did I ever suppose that they were so intimate, but that W[illia]m was so
warm hearted a fellow that he wd cut his right hand of to help even a stranger.
As I told you I pressed him to tell me if he had any debts whatever, offering to
defray them as far as I might be able myself, little did I then think that I was
entailing on him the debt of the gun by my own carelessness.
*1
You blame me for not mentioning any of my friends in the letters, I did so
intentionally because I did not see the use of expressing such wishes or
queries when one letter was meant for all & when to me, the very idea of any
member of our family not being hourly in my thoughts is preposterous. Could I
do it I would willingly write to all at home, but what I say to one I mean for all.
When I rise, & turn in at night my foremost prayer is always for you all & the
removing one branch from [3 words crossed out, illeg.] this would only
strengthen my love for the rest. I rather expected that you would give me
credit for believing that you should so far know me, that expressions were not
required. I was hurt at your supposing I c[oul]d have forgotten William & was
afraid you may think the faults of my early life were more attributable to the
heart than the head, I should rather have thought that you would have been
hurt at my asking you, or having to ask you, to send me news of him. You
deeply grieve me by what you say you have heard of my own health, proving
your affection for me[.] I cannot help thinking that 4 weary months must
elapse before you will see this hand writing, to tell you how misinformed you
are. Who can have sent such news from Tenneriffe [Tenerife] I cannot say nor
can I enquire till my poor Williams death gives me less pain. I made light of
my Madeira illness because I did not wish to vex you about trifles. I caught
that day a Rheumatic fever, from lying down to lunch on a damp bank at the
top of the corral 4000 ft high after severe exercise being
[[2]] very much heated, I was seized at Mr Muir's that same Evening, & laid up
for a week afterwards, suffering much pain but being in no danger whatever.
What Mr Muir means by the ulcer in my arm I cannot guess, it was for some
time afterwards so stiff that no power could move it, & I was forced to wear
them[?] in a sling, but before arriving in Tenneriffe [Tenerife] they had
gradually relaxed & never since, have I had any return of it. The prickly heat,
(a little pimply eruption[?] that attacks all persons just entering the Tropics) is
the only trouble I have felt, it was a bad annoyance, & that was all. every one
almost had more or less of it but it does not in the least affect the health. I tell
you truly dear Father that since leaving England (save only the Rheumatism) I
have never nor could I ever be in better health, my messmates say that I am
twice the person I was when I joined, & this I know that my English clothes will
hardly fit me. During all the cold weather & the fatigues I have had at
Kerguelen's Land I never have had cold or cough as I every winter had in
Glasgow; I have been well comfortable & happy, far too happy, till today –
And now that I can set your mind at rest, could any exertion or money hasten
this letter to you, gladly would I forfeit it so sad do I feel that you are labouring
under anxiety about my health.
I cannot thank you too much for the long letters you have written me, if you
know what it was to be 11 months without news you would then know my
feelings on receiving Post. My debts to Mamma and my faithful Maria are
equally great & they very much alleviated the distress one of yours caused.
Nothing I can say on that subject can console you, but the oft repeated
promise that you may prove me a faithful son & one that would make up your
loss as well as he could. You have lost a son but I a brother & companion of
20 years standing, & now I have none with whom on my return I can talk over
my childhood days; but I must not complain thus, but tell you, little as I feel
able, shortly, what I have seen, reserving a better account & extract of my
journal for another time when it will not be tainted with the melancholy that
must pervade this.
On the 6th April we left Simon's town, I took with me about 300 plants many
given me. At about 42°S. we entered a cold & inhospitable latitude & soon
reached the Marion's Islands[.] we hove to in a gale of wind that night, hoping
to go ashore next morning, but at dawn were blown far away & the gale was
too steady to beat back again, so we proceeded to the Crozets where we
arrived in this longitude, it was very thick weather & it again blew so that we
had to heave to during the night for fear of running fowl of them, next morning
they were not to be seen but being driven on by the gale we at last made
them, far out of their longitude and being to Leeward had to beat up. A sealing
party came out to receive some goods we had for them, but there was so
much likelihood of its coming on to blow another gale, that (there being no
safe anchorage) much to Capt Ross' disappointment he dared not land.
These islands are all very high, covered with rocky precipices & snow on the
hills which are 4--500 ft in some of them. The coasts are rugged in the
xtreme[sic] they are all volcanic & contain no shrub or tree. Thence we
proceeded to Kerguelen's Land & after being twice blown of[f] it in a gale of
wind we latterly on May 12 anchored in Christmas harbor. During the passage
there were few sea animals so I studied my Cape plants with Harvey,
Endlicher, & Decandolle. From a distance the island looks like terraces of
black rocks on which the snow lies causing it to look striped in horizontal
bands. On the melting of the snow the flats appear covered with green grass
& the hills with brown & yellow tufts of vegetation[.] The shores are almost
everywhere bounded by high steep precipices, some of frightful heights above
which the land rises in ledges to the tops of the hills. The varied colour in the
vegetation gave me hopes
[[3]] that the country might be rich in mosses & Christmas harbor is well
described & figured by Cook, indeed the accuracy with which he made a
running survey of the coast is marvellous, & shows how talented a man he
was. I cannot say say so much of his Surgeon & Botanist the ingenious Mr
Anderson[?] as one copy calls him. Had Cook been here in winter he would
have found it a different place to be in to what it is in Summer, the winds blow
right into it from the NW, with the most indescribable fury, preventing
sometimes for days any intercourse with the shore[.] We have the chain
cables of a 28 gun ship, & yet we drove with 3 anchors and 150 fathoms of
chain on the best power, 60 on the small, & a third anchor under foot the
sheet. Such a thing was never heard of before. During our stay I devoted all
my time to collect every thing in the Botanical way & hope you will not be
disappointed with the fruit of my poor exertions; you say you hope I shall
double the flora & I have done so. I was much surprised at finding the plants
in a good state of flower & fruit (all but 2). My time was my own to leave the
ship when I liked for the Captain took off all restriction [1 word crossed out,
illeg.] to my going where I liked. My rambles were generally solitary through
the wildest country I ever saw. The hill tops are always covered with snow &
frost & many of my best little lichens & mosses were gathered by hammering
out the tufts or sitting on them till they thawed. The days were so short & the
country so high snowy & bad that I never could get far from the harbour
though I several times tried by starting before light. As far as I went the
vegetation did not differ from that of the bays. A boating excursion was sent to
explore to the Southward I volunteered for it, but was advised to wait for a
second & as Mr McCormick had also engaged he went[,] they returned after
some days, having accomplished just nothing at all; the Officer who lead[sic]
the party found it impracticable for loaded men to travel by land, through bogs
rocks & snow drifts & when they put to sea the furious gales of wind nearly
drove them to sea. I went [on] several boating excursions in the
neighbourhood & in one was dismasted & nearly swamped. So Captain Ross
would send no more & I am promised to be of a longer & better party on the
next opportunity. Two Lycopodia one splendid one & a Fern were all Mr
McCormick added to my collection[,] he brought numerous splendid Quartz
chrystals [crystals] & other zeolites &c. together with lots of coal & fossil
wood[,] the latter we had long before found & I first detected it lying in
immense trunks in the solid basaltic rock[,] its existence here is wonderful in
the extreme[,] I have plenty of specimens.
The ground here is covered with a new genus of Cotrelleae[?] near
Strongylosperma. Also a new genus of Umbelliferae with paralleli[?] biscutate
carpels. A Antarctic american form, & several other wonderful things[.] My
collection amounts to about 130 in the following proportion – Fungi 1; Chara
1; -- Algae 38 -- Lichen. 30 -- Confera. 10.-- Marchantia[?] 1. Jungerm. 10.
Musci 23 -- Lycopod 2. -- Filices 1. Andraceae 2. Gramin 5. Junceae 1.
Amaranth ? 1. Compos 1. -- Portul[ac]aceae 1 -- Rubiaceae 1. -- Halorag 1.-Umbeliff 1. Rosaceae 1. Caryophyll ? 1. Cruciferae 1. Ranunc[?] 1. Unknown
2. But I have no heart to tell you of the beautiful Algae, the mosses the
Andreaea & a new Scouleria -- the Callitriche with no bracteae -- the
Portulaceae differing from all the Nat Ord, & still very near Montia -- the
Crucifera which we ate is a new section of the Nat Ord. has no dissepiment to
a short many seeded capsule, grows 4 feet high, & has mosses on its trunk !!
A Ranunculus with only 4 petals – a Juncus near filiformis[.] An Amarantheae
with 3 ovules & one seed besides a plant that flowers under 2 feet water & 2
inches ice, at the bottom of a lake, has a bubble of air in its capsule & belongs
to no Nat. Ord. at all. Could I tell you the delight with which I spent the days I
was kept on board by foul winds at K.G. Land, for in spite of the rolling of the
ship I have made out drawings for you of the parts of all the phaenogamic
[phanerogamic] plants I have found, though when they are sent you must be
careful
[[4]] in trusting too much to them, as when the ship rolls heavily drawing &
dissecting under the microscope are very difficult. I do assure you. I did my
best at Kerguelen's land[,] I attended to nothing but Botany & employed
myself daily on shore whenever I could or else on board drawing describing or
drying. I shall send very few notes out of my budget as they may be all wrong.
I cannot tax myself with neglecting the most insignificant plant on the island,
except the huge Laminaria radiata that grows on every rock in the sea. I
brought away a Ward's case full of all the Phanog. pts I could find. I dry &
packed them myself, & the Capt[ai]n. put them in his cabin, during the
continued bad weather; just before reaching the land here when a fine day
induced him to put them all on deck when a sudden tempest drove us for
three days off this Island & my own and the Capt[ain]s plants suffered, but I
hope not much. We left KG land July 20 & ran 1000 miles a week for 3 weeks
till *2 sighting this island when a terrific gale arose & did us some damage. As
a sea boat the 'Erebus' is unequalled she rides like a duck over the waves &
when a sea does break into her & sweep the deck fore & aft she seems to
stagger a little till a port is knocked out, to let the immense body of water
escape, I am going on the same as ever, Mr McCormick & Capt Ross are still
my ever kind friends, the former especially. In short I have nothing connected
with my situation to complain of, I have always plenty to do & a few plants
always afford me the means of amusing & I hope improving myself with them,
nothing shall tempt to neglect them if it is only for the solace they afford me.
Of sea weeds I get every kind I can & many a day I have walked along the
frozen beach of Christmas harbor, adding new ones to my stock with my feet
in the water & my thoughts at home, wet to the skin by the surf but always
happy in the thought that what I gather is to meet your eye. Mr [George]
Bentham has sent me a letter which I shall answer soon[,] it was excessively
kind of him to write to me as also of my affectionate friend Mr Almond, I
cannot thank him too much that good man is often in my thoughts connected
with home. Of Grandpapa & Bessy I can hardly bear to think[,] both kindly
wrote to me[.]
*3I
shall soon write again to you mama & Mr Almond also to Mr Childres[,]
Boott & Brown. Also to Mr [James] Dalton whose microscope I have daily
used. Good bye my dear father, give my love to all, I am afraid to specify for I
am full of melancholy forebodings. Excuse this rambling letter & I will write
you a letter next time[.] We stay here two months & then go to the Ice to
return I know not where or when. Believe me your most affectionate son Jos
D Hooker [signature]
*4 As
soon as I can draw it I shall send a bill for my sister in law or mother for
you to use for her or her child at your discretion[.] Dr Johnston is here[,] I have
not seen him yet. he will call at 9 tomorrow for me. He brought me a
packedge[sic] from you wh[ich] I have not seen yet. thank you very kindly for
it. I am rejoiced[?] that the Bot[anical] Journal is afloat again. Mr [Ronald
Campbell] Gunn has just received the [1 word illeg.] appointment as Sir John's
secretary[,] he wrote me a short note saying that whe will most probably see
me at Government house when I call"[.] this may be his manner[.] I shall send
your letter of introd[uction] by Mr Johnston tomorrow & ask him to explain my
just hearing melancholy news from home. I suppose he got the situation
through you partly. On coming up the "Derwent" the pilot gave me a news
paper officially announcing his taking the office. [2 words illeg.] I intended to
have had a months leave & gone to Circular head I hope to go to MacQuarie
harbor or Oyster bay now.
ENDNOTES
1. Pencil annotation to indicate paragraph break.
2. The address of the recipient appears here as the letter would originally
have been folded in such a way that it formed its own 'envelope'. The address
reads: "Sir William J. Hooker | Woodside Crescent | Glasgow |
N[orth].B[ritain]."
3. This paragraph is written along the right hand side of page 4, at right angles
to the rest of the letter text.
4. The text which runs from here until the end of the letter is written vertically
down the margin at the top of page 1.
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